Some businesses by their nature are national or international – most online stores for example. But the majority of businesses operate locally or at most state-wide or regionally.
How does that change things?
For one, you need to ensure you are listed correctly in Google Places (what they called Maps and before that Local). And also in Bing’s and Yahoo’s versions of the same thing.
Plus in Yellow Pages sites such as SuperPages, plus the variety of local directory websites out there such as Kudzu, MerchantCircle, etc.
If you have more than one location, make sure all your locations are listed.
If you service areas in which you don’t have a location, consider getting a virtual location – with a mailbox address and forwarding phone number for the area.
Ensure areas you serve are named on your website, including having individual pages for each location.
If you are running click ads such as Google AdWords, make sure you are limiting the area where your ads appear to those in your actual service area.
There’s more to it, but make sure you at least get these done.